Vladimir Lenin

Speech At A Meeting In

The Alexeyev People’s  House

August 23, 1918

Brief Newspaper Report

Delivered:23 August, 1918.First Published:24 August, 1918IzvestiaNo. 182, Published according to theIzvestiatextSource:Lenin’s Collected Works, Progress Publishers,

    Moscow, Volume 28, 1965, pages 59-60Translated (and edited):Jim RiordanTranscription/HTML Markup:David WaltersOnline Version:V. I. Lenin Internet

    Archive, 2002

(Comrade Lenin's appearance is greeted with
	stormy, prolonged applause.)Comrades, today our Party is
	arranging meetings to explain what we Communists are fighting
	for.

The most concise answer to this question would be that we are
      fighting for the termination of the imperialist war and for
      socialism.

Right at the very outbreak of the war, when reaction and
      tsarism held sway, we called the war criminal and said that the
      only way out was to convert it from imperialist into civil
      war.

In those days many were uncertain about the connection between
      the imperialist war and socialism; even many socialists thought
      that this war, like any other, would end by the conclusion of
      peace.

But four years of war have taught people a lot. It is now
      becoming clearer and clearer that there is no other way out. The
      Russian revolution is being followed by the growth of revolution
      in all the belligerent countries. Why is this so? To answer that
      question we must explain the attitude of Communists towards war,
      give our appraisal of it. We regard all wars which are the
      result of the rapacious ambitions of kings and capitalists as
      criminal, because they are fatal to the labouring classes and
      bring rich spoils to the ruling bourgeoisie.

But there are some wars which the working class must regard as
      the only just wars. These are wars for emancipation from
      slavery, from capitalist oppression. And such wars are bound to
      occur, for we cannot secure our emancipation without
      struggle.

When the war broke out in 1914 between the Germans on the one
      hand and the British and French on the other to determine how
      they were to divide up the earth among themselves, who was to
      have the right to oppress the whole world, the capitalists of
      both camps tried to disguise their predatory aims by talking
      about "national defence"; that is how they tried to pull the
      wool over the eyes of the people.

Millions of people have been killed and millions crippled in
      this war. It has become world-wide. And more and more
      insistently people are asking what is the purpose of these
      unnecessary sacrifices.

Britain and Germany are drenched in blood, yet there is no way
      out of the war; even if some of the imperialist countries were to
      stop fighting, others would continue.

The capitalists have overreached themselves, they have grabbed
      more than they can hold. Meanwhile, the armies are becoming
      demoralised; there are deserters everywhere. The mountains of
      Italy are swarming with them; in France soldiers are refusing to
      fight, and even in Germany the old discipline has fallen
      apart.

French and German soldiers are beginning to realise they must
      reverse their front and turn their guns against their own
      governments, as it is impossible to end this bloody war under
      the capitalist system. Hence the realisation that the workers of
      the world must take up the struggle against the capitalists of
      the world.

It is no easy matter to create a socialist system. The Civil
      War is bound to continue for many a long month, perhaps for many
      a long year. This should be clear to a Russian, for he knows how
      difficult it is to overthrow the ruling class and what desperate
      resistance the Russian landowners and capitalists are putting
      up.

There is no country in Europe in which the workers are not in
      sympathy with the Bolsheviks and are not convinced that the time
      will come when they will overthrow their own government, just as
      the Russian workers have overthrown theirs.

We Russian Communists so far stand alone, because our
      detachment has proved to be ahead of all the others. We have
      been cut off from our comrades; but we had to act first because
      our country was the most backward. Our revolution was begun as a
      general revolution, and we shall tackle our tasks with the help
      of the workers and peasants of the world.

Our tasks are hard and difficult; many undesirable and
    pernicious elements are joining our ranks. But the work has begun,
    and even if we do make mistakes, we should remember that every
    mistake is an education and a lesson.

Capitalism is an international force, and it can therefore be
      completely destroyed only through victory in all countries, not
      in one alone. The war against the Czechs is a war against the
      capitalists of the whole world.

The workers are rising and joining this struggle; the Petrograd
      and Moscow workers are joining the army and bringing with them the
      idea of fighting for the victory of socialism.

The workers will ensure the victory of the Soviet Republic over
      the Czechs and give it a chance to hold out until the world
      socialist revolution breaks out.(Comrade Lenin concludes
      his speech amidst stormy applause.)